to tuck

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

To gather into a narrow compass; to crush together; to hinder from spreading.--Johnson.


In the United States we use the phrase, to tuck on, in two different senses or applications. It means in the first place to lay on; as, 'having caught the thief, he tucked it on to him without mercy.' 'How you tuck the price on these goods,' i. e. how dear they are. It also means, to force a bad article on a person in buying or exchanging; as, 'We swapped horses, and I got this miserable old animal tucked on to me.'

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